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Rene Benko’s ailing property group Signa is close to selling a building in downtown Munich to German construction tycoon Alfons Doblinger, in what would be the first major asset sale since its main units filed for insolvency in December, Bloomberg News reported. Signa Prime and its insolvency administrator are in direct talks with the 80 year-old entrepreneur over the sale of Rosenstrasse 8 in Munich’s main shopping area. The building has been marketed for about €100 million ($109 million).
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The head of China's state planner said on Wednesday that the government's 5% economic growth target this year, which many analysts say is ambitious, is achievable and that he expects the world's second-largest economy to have a good first quarter, Reuters reported. Speaking at a rare joint briefing on the sidelines of the annual parliament meeting in Beijing with China's finance minister, commerce minister, central bank chief, and head of the securities regulator, Zheng Shanjie said officials would step up economic policy adjustments this year to consolidate a recovery.
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The Bank of Canada held its policy rate steady for a fifth consecutive meeting, acknowledging progress on inflation while reiterating that it’s still “too early” to consider rate cuts, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers led by Governor Tiff Macklem left the benchmark overnight rate unchanged at 5% on Wednesday. The pause was expected by markets and by economists in a Bloomberg survey.
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Egypt struck a deal with the International Monetary Fund to extend the country an $8 billion loan, hours after allowing its currency to float freely and raising interest rates in a surprise bid to win back foreign investors as its economy comes under pressure from the war in Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Egyptian pound lost about 38% of its value against the U.S. dollar after the currency announcement, despite the Central Bank of Egypt raising key interest rates. The pound last traded at 49 pounds to one U.S. dollar, from about 30 the previous day.
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New York state lawmakers are renewing the push to overhaul the protracted and painful process of solving sovereign debt crises, Bloomberg News reported. Senator Gustavo Rivera is sponsoring amended legislation that stands to ramp up oversight on how defaulted government debt is restructured with creditors. It could also potentially limit how much investors are allowed to recoup when countries restructure their debts — a concept that’s riled up Wall Street in the past.
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Ghana is resisting calls by holders of the country’s eurobonds to offer a sweetener for restructuring $13 billion of debt, risking a self-imposed deadline for a deal, Bloomberg News reported. Investors have asked Ghana to link interest payments on some of the debt to the future economic growth of the West African nation. Bondholders want Ghana to mirror Suriname, which last year issued a so-called value-recovery instrument that pays out if the nation becomes oil-rich.
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Kenyan lawmakers approved the Treasury’s plans to offer debt-for-nature and food-security swaps to bolster the nation’s finances for its next fiscal year starting July 1, Bloomberg News reported. The East African nation is in talks with the United Nations and development partners to structure the debt swaps, according to a Treasury report that was published last month. The report didn’t provide details on how much Kenya plans to raise via these instruments and how they would work.
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The mid-January deadline for businesses to qualify for partial forgiveness of pandemic loans likely played a major role in driving up business insolvencies that month, said the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the Canadian Press reported. As businesses continue to face inflation, labour shortages, higher interest rates and weakened consumer spending, for many the deadline was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Simon Gaudreault, the CFIB’s chief economist and vice-president of research. “The math just doesn’t add up anymore,” he said.
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The Brazilian airline Azul SA is working with Citigroup Inc. and Guggenheim Partners as it explores a potential offer for its troubled competitor Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Bloomberg News reported. Shares in both companies rallied. The companies are advising Azul as it weighs several options, including an outright acquisition of its rival. Azul still could decide to shelve the idea. Any offer would need approval from the country’s regulator — known as Cade.
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The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday reserved its order in the matter related to Dublin-based aircraft lessor Aircastle Limited’s insolvency petition against budget airline SpiceJet, the Economic Times of India reported. SpiceJet’s counsel has cast doubt over the maintainability of Aircastle’s petition as the latter had filed a separate petition under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) against the Gurgaon-headquartered carrier. The counsel for Aircastle has argued that both petitions deal with separate cases of default by SpiceJet.
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